China slams Japanese textbook revisions

BEIJING, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Thursday slammed Japan's latest textbook revisions which claim the Diaoyu Islands as Japanese territory and deny the number of victims in the Nanking Massacre.

"The Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated isles have been an inherent part of Chinese territory since ancient times," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a routine press briefing.

"China holds indisputable sovereignty over them and any attempt to alter this fact will end in vain," Hong said when asked to comment on the revision.

In regards to the World War II-era Nanking Massacre, Hong said it's an "atrocious crime" conducted by the Japanese military during the invasion. There is solid proof for, and an internationally-accepted conclusion on, the matter.

"We hope the Japanese side will treat this in the proper manner and properly handle historical issues with a sincere adherence to the principle of learning from history and facing the future," Hong said.

The Nanking Massacre occurred in December 1937, when Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, then-capital of China also known as Nanking. More than 300,000 Chinese were killed by Japanese soldiers during the occupation.